Baseball's star-studded evening

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's speech at USC last night drew a high-octane crowd of owners and team executives. The McCourts were there (Jaimie made it for the reception and Frank came later), Angels owner Arte Moreno, A's owner Lew Wolff, Red Sox owner Tom Werner and Fox Sports honchos David Hill and Ed Goren. Selig, who appeared as part of the Sports Business Institute's commissioners' series, was still beaming from the agreement last month with the ballplayers' union on a five-year contract. It's the first time that the two sides have cut a deal in advance of a contract expiration. Citing attendance figures, Selig said that baseball is in the midst of its golden age, although he did bring up those horrendous World Series ratings on Fox (to which Hill leaned back and chortled - I suspect not happily). The Institute's executive director, David Carter, has NASCAR CEO Brian France lined up for Feb. 22.